Searching for new lenses

Last two days of readings and searching have led me to:

http://beautifuldecay.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/EckertSculpture3.jpg

Feminist Economics: Implications for education by Myra H. Strober 
"Key neoclassical economic constructs such as self-interest, scarcity, maximization, choice, efficiency, value and competition, originally developed to understand market transactions, have come to influence and in some cases dominate, education policies.  For example, because of the inroads that mainstream economic concepts and modes of analysis have made in our society, many believe that the primary function of the education system is to train workers for the economy."

"Mainstream economists argue that first and foremost, economics is the study of people's choices.  But this was not always so. Adam Smith saw economics not only as a problem of exchange but also a problem of "provisioning"... concerned not only with one's own goods and services but also with those of others.  It means speaking out when some people go hungry or malnourished even though there is enough food produced to ensure all the world's population and adequate diet."

Reading of Strober's piece against this outraged and sad mother's observation of the new Common Core Standards on her son.  What are we measuring exactly? http://mrsmomblog.com/2013/10/02/how-common-core-is-slowly-changing-my-child/

Back to Strober, she  writes about our education system as a system built on "competition" and "scarcity" She provides a beautiful model of what a grading system without scarcity might look like
on page 272.

The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, "balance financial considerations against the ability to be ourselves, set our own schedules, do challenging work and live in communities that reflect our values and priorities"

Feminizing the economy: metaphors, strategies and politics by Jenny Cameron and J.K. Gibson-Graham, "In place of the view of the economy as a whole comprised of pre-established number of parts or sectors, we begin to see the economy as a discursive construct that can be reconstructed to contribute to social transformation."

Now, how does this all fit in with the other tangent that today brought me?  Linda Thompson.  A British singer songwriter from the 70's/80's who lost her ability to sing in public due to a psychological affliction  that causes "women usually between the ages of 30-50" to lose their ability to speak or sing in public...." She has a beautiful, soul-haunting voice when she sings Tom Wait's songs and old sea chanties. Her more 'pop-y' stuff doesn't hit me as much. But why did she get caught up in my journey today? (Oh, I know, I know... but I won't say more just now...)

All this while watching the videos of all the movement material we have generated, trying to develop the text for it, and constantly having more ideas of new things I am curious about and would like to engage the dancers as embodied researchers on.